Shipping and receiving of packages is a common activity among consumers and businesses today. Activities related to shipping and receiving generally involve providing information associated with the package (e.g., recipient, address, etc.), providing a package to a shipping provider (e.g., drop off, pickup, etc.), assignment of a tracking number, and delivery of the package to the recipient.
A shipping provider may provide a sender with means for providing and receiving information about packages electronically. Such means may include, for example, electronic or web interfaces and/or paper forms that are completed with particulars for the packages. These particulars may include a recipient's address, recipient's telephone number, sender's address, sender's phone number, and other information useful to identify the package and ensure safe delivery. Providing such information may require a sender to key and/or write in a large amount of data. This data must be maintained by the sender (e.g., on paper, database, or other suitable means). The sender may then provide the packages to a shipping provider (e.g., UPS™, FedEx®, DHL, etc.), or a company affiliated with the shipping provider (e.g., Mailboxes etc.) or schedule a pickup for the packages.
Upon shipping the packages, a sender may receive a tracking number assigned to each package sent. This tracking number may enable a sender or receiver to check the status of packages by entering or otherwise providing the number to a provided interface. Shipping providers may scan or otherwise enter information related to package status at a predetermined interval and link such information to a number unique within a tracking system. For example, a shipping provider may scan a tracking number bar code as a package enters various waypoints (e.g., a depot in Kansas, a receiving facility in recipient's hometown, etc.) on its journey to a recipient. Each time the bar code is scanned, information such as package location and timestamp may be recorded and linked to the package tracking number. Therefore, a receiver wishing to determine an anticipated delivery date for one or more packages may go to a web site and enter each tracking number related to each package to be checked. The shipping provider may then provide information including, for example, current location, anticipated delivery date, and shipping date of each package for which a tracking number was entered based on saved tracking information. In some situations, a sender may or may not provide the tracking number to a recipient, and the recipient may, therefore, have no means for determining status of a package or multiple packages without contacting the sender. Further, due to uniqueness and other factors, tracking numbers often comprise long and unrelated strings of characters, and are therefore cumbersome to communicate and difficult to remember.
Once a package arrives at its destination (e.g., a home, a receiving department, etc.) it may be received immediately (as in a home delivery), or as is more often the case, left to sit for several hours or days until processed and delivered to the actual recipient. While a recipient may check package status using the tracking number (if provided by the sender), the recipient must be proactive in checking such status, possibly checking status on numerous occasions throughout the day. This may be inconvenient, especially where the recipient is awaiting an important package. Further, the status may only reveal that the package has been delivered, requiring an additional phone call to the receiving department or other facility.
Because each shipping provider may have different data requirements, interfaces, package handling methods, etc., senders and receivers may be required to become familiar with the varying systems. Further, information exchange (e.g., package information transfer, package tracking, etc.) has generally been limited to a web interface and/or a physical (“bricks and mortar”) place of business. This may be inconvenient for many senders and receivers who cannot spare the time to sit down at a computer or stop into a shipping provider location to inquire about package status, among other things. Moreover, current systems are limited in the functions provided to a user. Some of the functions include calculating shipping charges, creating shipping labels, scheduling a pickup time and location, tracking package progress and receiving delivery notification. However, a more dynamic system may provide more flexibility and many more useful functions to the user.